sunbeamtiger.co.uk

A quick question regarding Tiger cooling.

Those who are running modfied Tigers:

What electric fans are you using? pusher/puller, after market or OEM, what size?

What engine driven fans are you using? Part numbers and brand?

Michael

A lot of UK Tigers run with an 11" electric fan fitted in front of the radiator blowing through it. Most owners here prefer to fit a manual switch so that as soon as you hit traffic you can switch the fan on & hopefully hold the temperature. Commercial suppliers like Sunbeam Spares sell the Flexilite fan - these are a stainless steel fan which many say are a great improvement over the original 60's designed Ford fan.
Then there is the aluminium radiator route too. Reports back from STOC members have said they are pleased with the performance of these rads.
As a case point, one member told me recently he'd had been running at 70 for about 3/4hour & came to a dead stop. Then sat in a queue for a full 20 mins & with the fan running held a steady temperature of 86c. These ally rads do though need a filter in the top hose to prevent debris entering the rad & reducing efficency.

This is just one angle for modified road Tigers. There are many more.
Be excellent if some Forum users could add their views too!!!

STOC Editor

Thanks Graham,

From what i hear (and this is similar to alpine experience) the ally radiators are actually more useful on the move than when at idle.

I have a Dales restorations alloy radiator in the car (this is mean to be a good one) and an electric pusher fan on the fron from summit racing (though i dont think it moves that much air) I also have a plastic flexi fan.

I think a switch to a metal flexi fan, adding a radiator shroud and a more efficent deeper bladed elecrtic fan will hopefully solve my problems.

As a side note the car has the horn holes blocked off.

This car was used for track days, and the cooling system coped fine, but in traffic it is not great. If you are moving its fine, and cools quickly, but if let to idle its not a happy story.

Michael, if it survives a track day, it sounds to me like your cooling system is fine apart from the electric fan, which needs to shift more air. I would try a more efficient/powerful fan. The modern curved bladed ones should be quite good enough.

i have modified 289 under my hood and alloy rad and flexi fan and pair of kenlowe fans do the job. if anything with lat option bonnet it runs too cool, i only use electric fans in traffic manually or temp switch,,,,,,,lat bonnet alloy rad and flexifan is the way to go..dom

OK guys.. got the maverick 6 blade fan.. looks like i have clearance issues with the rack, pulley to lubg etc.. anyway.. turns out the electric fan while mounted correctly was wired wrong.. hence blowing air OUT the front of the car.. reversed the wirring.. car now stays at 185 even in traffic on a 40 degeree day!!! betetr off than the driver ... so small problem is now solved

i have a plastic electric pusher in front of the rad and thats it. its on a thermostatic switch. worked ok (just) in hot chicago summers.

i also have a LAT hood though which i think helps.

odl21 wrote:i have a plastic electric pusher in front of the rad and thats it. its on a thermostatic switch. worked ok (just) in hot chicago summers.

i also have a LAT hood though which i think helps.

Did you leave the stock fan or remove it?

I have just fitted an electric pusher fan, and I am tempted to remove the stock fan as it will release a few BHP. I have found a firm who sells a hose adapter fitted with a modern type 95 degree switch, which I prefer to using the capillary tube type. I will add a manual switch as an override too.

no engine fan and i've never needed a manual switch either. in fact i have no shroud either. i'd like to post a pic of the engine bay but the forum doesn't allow it.

instead, remove the spaces from this url and paste into your browser:


h t t p [colon, slash, slash] owainlloyd[dot]no-ip[dot]com:8080/ photos/Tiger/Engine%20Bay/slides/CIMG2299.JPG

I would leave the stock engine fan on for 2 reasons:

1. i doubt you will notice the Hop loss of the fan on a tiger.. they barely make a 1 bhp loss on an alpine.

2. It churs the air around in the engine bay.. without a hodd in the bionet the hot air will just rise and sit round the carb, i figure the tubulance given by the fan will maybe move the air round a little more and help the carb breathe some slightly better (cooler) air. just my .02c

Michael, its a good point you make about the temperature in the engine bay, but I have always understood that engine fans can consume up to 6HP, and they do add some noise. Anyway, I shall experiment to see if I need to refit mine.

I have a Kk 2 Tiger that NEVER overheats anymore. A USA Tiger owner from California solved his overheating problems in the hot sun and passed his method on to me here in the UK. I followed his instructions and have cured the problem.
1. Fit a Gano filter in to the top hose. This is a brass housing with 2 filters that fits inside the top house and filters out any muck thats circulating. Justs needs cleaning out once a year. Gano's are available from the U.S. Calif. owners club CATO.
2. Fill the whole system with 75% distilled water (never use tap), 25% anti freeze and a bottle of water wetter. Water wetter is made by Redline and is usually available in the U.K. with a bit of searching. Drops the temp by up to 15 degrees.
Hope this helps, Martin.

I fitted a 6 bladed from from "Real Steel" do a google (UK) and that together with a shroud, LAT bonnet and Alloy Rad (being fitted, look up Radtec.co.uk on google UK) has certainly helped things to stay cool and will also try some "Water Wetter" for the Classic Le Mans trip this year (Thanks for the tip Mart) My kenlowe fans fitted when things used to get too hot rarely come on now